Firefighters responded to reports of a fire in a room on the top floor of a six story LaQuinta Inn and Suites a little after 6:30 a.m. on Hampton Park Boulevard, said Mark Brady, a spokesperson for the Prince George’s County Fire Department.

Brady said the sprinkler system was activated, which helped limit the fire, and firefighters were able to put the fire out once they arrived. In their search, firefighters found one person dead in the room.

WASHINGTON — Three Maryland men, including the head pastor of a Prince George’s County church and a Capitol Police officer, have been charged with sexually abusing four teen girls involved in a church-run program for at-risk youth.

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Prince George’s County police said that the teens were abused between 2001 and 2008 when they were 15–18 years old, and that they came forward as adults.

Police have arrested Joshua Wright, 67, of Brandywine, who is the head pastor of the church; his son William Wright of White Plains, a minister at the church; and Donald Jackson, also of White Plains, the pastor’s son-in-law.

William Wright is also a Capitol Police officer, according to charging documents. Eva Malecki, a Capitol Police spokeswoman, told WTOP that Wright has been taken off duty.

All three men are charged with child abuse, assault and sex offenses. Both Jackson and William Wright admitted to police that they engaged in sex acts with the teens, according to charging documents.

Police said the teens were enrolled in the Children Having Overcoming Power program run by the Oxon Hill Assembly Of Jesus Christ in Fort Washington, Maryland. Under the program for “at-risk youth,” the teens lived in the homes of church members and took classes at the church.

According to charging documents, the teens were placed in the men’s homes, where they reported being regularly sexually abused. Police said abuse also took place in parks and at the church.

The church program ended in 2011. Police are asking anyone else who participated in the church program and were abused to speak with investigators.

You can call the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Child and Vulnerable Adult Unit at 301-772-4930. Callers who want to remain anonymous can call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com.

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Last fall, an independent audit found that one in four Prince George’s County high school graduates in 2016 and 2017 may not have met graduation requirements.

Now, the Maryland State Board of Education plans a lengthier follow-up audit that will look at the Class of 2018.

“In short, we looked backwards. Now we want to look to the current and to the future,” Board President Andy Smarick said at its meeting Tuesday. The new independent audit, he added, will “make sure this next wave of graduates happening this year and into the future have all of the necessary requirements met.”

The audit will include a review of the Class of 2018’s graduation records and interviews with school leaders and staff, said Karen Salmon, Maryland state superintendent of schools. It could take about six months to complete.

Salmon also plans to put a member of her staff in the county in a monitoring role.

“Yes, this whole process has been discouraging — the things that we learned the first time around — but I’m pretty optimistic about this,” Smarick said. “And it’ll help not just Prince George’s County but also hopefully the rest of the state as we think about high school graduation requirements and monitoring.”

Prince George’s County schools CEO Kevin Maxwell is in the process of stepping down following the charges of grade manipulation and criticism over staff member raises.

D.C. Public Schools is also dealing with a graduation scandal. A study commissioned by the school system found that more than one in three students who graduated from high schools last year got help due to policy violations.

Nathan Clinkscale was arrested April 30 after the teen’s mother called Prince George’s County police to her home on Teakwood Drive. The girl’s mother said she found Clinkscale, 25, in her daughter’s bedroom at around 1:30 a.m.

Police said the girl told investigators she met Clinkscale on the dating app the day before and invited him into her house through a basement window.

Clinkscale told investigators he believed the girl was 18.

Clinkscale, who had worked for the D.C. police department since 2016, was placed on administrative leave immediately after the incident and subsequently terminated.

WASHINGTON — The Prince George’s County police are looking for a person of interest in the killing of a 29-year-old Maryland man shot along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway earlier this month.

Investigators released surveillance video from a convenience store on South Dakota Avenue in D.C., which was recorded about 15 minutes after the shooting that claimed James Edwards’ life.

Edwards, of New Carrollton, was shot during the evening rush hour May 9 on Annapolis Road, which investigators said is just off the BW Parkway. Since the shooting happened at 6:10 p.m. in broad daylight, police said, it is likely other drivers saw something.

Preliminarily, detectives do not believe it was a random act.

The video shows a young man wearing a white tank top and jeans walk into the store and up to the counter. The video clearly shows his face which is enhanced for viewers by police.

A $25,000 reward is being offered for a tip that leads to a conviction. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, or use the “P3 Tips” mobile app.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 301-772-4925. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477), or go online at www.pgcrimesolvers.com, or use the “P3 Tips” mobile app (search “P3 Tips” in the Apple Store or Google Play to download the app onto your mobile device.)

In just his third title defense since April 2016, Russell (29-1) had winning scores of 117-111 from two judges’ scorecards and a 115-113 edge from the third.

The 29-year-old pounded his chest in celebration, nor soon, nor the words “unanimous decision” were announced at the MGM National Harbor.

Diaz (26-1) also appeared to know he had been second best over the 12 rounds, despite some promising early moments in his first professional title bout. Diaz and his camp clapped the decision after it was announced.

In a bout between left-handed former U. S. Olympic team fighters, Russell gained control as it progressed.

He perhaps came closest to a knockdown when he connected with a flurry of shots late in the fourth that Diaz survived, and then again with a right hook that sent Diaz briefly stumbling backward in the 10th.

The latter came after Russell briefly slipped onto the canvas, a moment Diaz’s fans briefly believed was a knockdown.

A similar moment came in the 12th, and although Diaz pressed on and briefly had Russell on the ropes late, he couldn’t find the knockout he needed.

This was Russell’s second consecutive defense here with his brothers fighting on the undercard, just a few miles from their hometown of Capital Heights.

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